The last thing Eomer was thinking about as he made his way through the Houses of Healing was where he was going. It had taken them longer than he liked to return to the city, but when they finally reached the gates somehow he lost sight of them amidst the chaos of the survivors and rubble. After a few moments of sheer panic, he was able to remind himself that she was safe and in good hands. Hands that would continue on towards their destination regardless of a wayward brother. It took many wrong turns and directions from strangers, but he finally found his way. Once inside, he was in such a rush that he barely even registered the woman he had run into until she was on the floor.
"Are you alright?" he asked, extending his hand to help her up. She nodded as she stood. "Yes, my lord, thank you. I apologize, I should have been more attentive." she said, looking up at him. Her eyes were grey and kind, but there were dark circles beginning to form beneath them. "I wonder if she's rested at all." he thought. "No wonder her mind was elsewhere."
"It's I who should have been paying more attention, my lady." he said. She offered him a smile. "Not at all. This is actually in our favor, because I believe I was sent to find you. You are Eomer King, are you not?" she asked. He nodded slowly and she continued. "Master Gimli informed me you have not been seen by a healer since the battle ended." There was no question in her voice, he realized. He was being informed, not given a choice, and a pang of frustration flashed across his face. "I appreciate your worry, my lady. But I need to find someone."
Her voice was kind, but held a note of strength that implied she was not unaccustomed to being in charge. "I apologize, sire. I understand that you don't wish to be apart from your family, but you can return to her side when you have been attended to."
His first instinct was quick and hot anger. Exhausted or not, how dare she?! This healer girl was standing here giving him orders, without any possible understanding of the depth of his agony, or the harrowing emptiness that had haunted him all his life - now rising and threatening to swallow him whole. He was a King after all! Surely that meant more than the orders of this girl who stood nearly two heads shorter than himself.
"My lady," he said, speaking through gritted teeth, "Thank you for your concern, but my place is with my sister." He took a step to the side to move past her, but once again she blocked his path. Taken aback, he tried again only to be met with the same result. Fear began to build in his chest, only fuelling the misplaced rage that he felt. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he could hear the rationality speaking to him that this was not her fault. But the rational little voice was not in charge the moment he shouted at her. "LET ME PASS!" he bellowed, his eyes wild and desperately searching beyond her. The girl's expression did not change, merely her stance. Her shoulders lifted back and her chin tilted upwards, commanding more of the space around her as she refused to back down. "Bema, she doesn't even look scared." he realized.
"Sire, you survived this horror - which in itself is a miracle. But you need to allow Lord Aragorn to work on your sister for a moment without an anxious and irritable king hovering over him. You need to be examined and I promise that as soon as it is done you can return to her." Her tone betrayed no frustration or offense at his outburst, and she remained quite calm. If he was being honest, he was rather impressed. Although he didn't necessarily enjoy it, he knew that he could be quite intimidating if the occasion called for it. Begrudgingly he gave her a curt nod. She offered him a small smile and turned to lead him away.
"It's for the best. Eowyn is in good hands. I can't do anything to help her anyway." he reminded himself as he followed her to another room, allowing his anger to give way to the grief it was hiding. He set down his sword and began removing his armor while she rolled up her sleeves and tied her hair back. She worked in silence, inspecting the minor cuts and bruises that he had sustained during the fight and cleaning each of them with a damp cloth and a salve that smelled of herbs. The fire that had fueled him during the battle was starting to burn down, and the ache in his body was worse than he had anticipated. "Maybe she had a point. She didn't deserve the reaction I gave... " he thought as she cleaned each small cut.
"I know it seems like they're insignificant, but even small cuts can cause irreparable damage." she said quietly, rinsing the cloth. "We wouldn't want you to catch infection."
In the end it didn't take very long for her to patch him up. When she finished, she washed her hands again and handed him a mug of strong smelling tea and a vial of the ointment she had applied to his other wounds.
"The salve will help prevent infection, and the tea is for the headache I'm sure will be setting in soon. Make sure to clean the cuts regularly, and if you start to feel ill or the pain increases please make sure to return here immediately. But you are free to return to your sister." she said, and with a small curtsey she turned towards the door. Before stepping out of the room, she turned back for a moment and met his eyes. There was a sincerity and depth in them that caught him off guard. "I'll be praying for her recovery."
With that, she was gone.
As the door closed behind her, Eomer finally allowed the tears to come. Tears for Theodred, for Uncle, for Eowyn. Tears for all the anger and agony that raged inside of him, fuelled by the insurmountable guilt of being left alive while so many were dead. Tears for the fear of what was to come, whether it be death before the Gates of Mordor or leading and repairing a war torn land. He let them come until his tears ran dry, but no sense of comfort or peace was left in their wake. A dull throbbing began in his head. "The girl was right." he thought begrudgingly, and reached for the tea. After taking a few sips, he splashed some water on his face, gathered his things, and made his way out of the room.
It didn't take him long to find Aragorn, who greeted him with a smile.
"Did Lady Lothiriel find you?" he asked. "If she's the one our favorite dwarf outed the nature of my condition to," he shot a glare at Gimli who just grinned at him, "then yes." His expression softened a bit. "I regret that I was quite out of sorts when our paths crossed. She was kind to me, though I was not to her."
"None of us are quite ourselves at the moment." said Aragorn, resting a hand on his shoulder. "You look exhausted, my friend. Eowyn is this way. I'll have a cot brought for you. You should get some rest, and we'll discuss more matters later." Eomer nodded, following Aragorn away to where Eowyn slept. He sat by her side and though he could see and hear her breath coming easier, he continued to check now and again. The healers brought him a bedroll with apologies that no cots were free, but he waved away their words and gratefully laid it out. With one final check that Eowyn still drew breath, he laid his head on the pillow and sleep took him.
As Lothiriel closed the door behind her, she breathed a sigh of relief. Though his temper had startled her, she focused on the screams that had haunted her sleep and reminded herself of what he had been through. The likelihood of anyone taking kindly to being told they would have to wait to see their loved ones was slim, much less someone who was trying to see a person he had broken down over believing they were dead. With some determination, she put aside the exhausted girl with questions and became once again the healer with a job to do - regardless of whether her patient was a stubborn king.
But as she walked away, her facade fell and she was once again the girl with questions about why. Why had she seen Eowyn on the battlefield? Why had she been haunted mercilessly by his voice? Where did they come from, and what did they mean?
"I'll ask father when I get the chance to see him." she thought. "First I need to find Pippin and inform him of his companions arrival, and that he can go see Merry. After that I need sleep. As much as I want answers, even if I find any I'll never remember or make sense of them." She could feel the exhaustion creeping over her now that any adrenaline she had from her search and rescue with Pippin or her encounter with Rohan's King was fading.
Her feet dragged along the cobblestone as she made her way to Pippin's chamber and knocked on the door. After a few moments he opened it, meeting her eyes worriedly. "Is everything alright?" he asked hesitantly. She smiled at him and nodded. "Of course it is. Merry is doing very well. I left him in the hands of someone you know."
Pippin looked at her quizzically.
"I met some very unique characters when we got Merry settled." she said. "A man, an elf, and a dwarf."
"Aragorn?! Legolas, Gimli?" he cried.
"Yes! They're here, they send their regards. Aragorn is tending to Merry and Faramir and Eowyn, and when they can they will come find you."
"Oh, everything is alright indeed!" Tears began to stream down his cheeks and his joyful laughter filled the room. "I thought I might never see them again, what a marvelous day it is." His good mood was contagious, and Lothiriel found herself smiling and laughing with him.
"I'm so happy for you, my friend."
He turned to her and grew somber for a moment. "This wouldn't have been possible without you, Lothiriel. You saved my closest friend. He would have died out there if we hadn't found him, and I don't know if I would have without your help. I am forever in your debt, and if there is anything at all I can do to repay this kindness, you need only say the word."
She smiled at him. "The honor was all mine. But if the day comes, it is good to know I can count on your help."
He nodded and bowed low. "You know, you are not what I imagined a Princess would be." he said. She laughed softly. "What did you think a princess would be, Pip?" He shrugged. "I do not know exactly what I thought a princess would be. Prim and proper, probably. Untouchable, unreal. Certainly not someone who would drop everything they were doing to help a hobbit find his friend. I didn't think to look for one as a healer either." he said thoughtfully. "A princess is supposed to put her people first. That's one of the first lessons that I was taught, and it was when I knew I wanted to be a healer. I count you amongst my people, Pippin. I'm just doing what I believe to be right."
Pippin just chuckled and shook his head.
"What?"
"You and your cousins are quite alike, that's all."
"Faramir?" she asked. Pippin nodded. "And Boromir, in some ways." His eyes cast downward as they always did when he mentioned Boromir. "You're all very strong. You believe in doing what's right regardless of the consequences, even if you go about it in different ways." he mused.
"He was a good man." she said quietly, and Pippin just nodded.
They sat there for a few more quiet moments before Lothiriel stifled a yawn.
"I'm so sorry, Lothiriel, you must be exhausted and I'm keeping you!" said Pippin. "Not at all, you're not keeping me!" she insisted, but Pippin just shook his head. "A wise friend of mine told me that 'you've done all you can, and you're of no use to anyone if you can barely stand.' Go get some rest. We'll talk later."
Lothiriel could feel her eyelids growing heavy and couldn't bring herself to argue.
"Thank you, Pippin." she said gratefully.
"No, thank you Lothiriel." he said with a smile as he shut the door behind her.
She was barely aware of where her tired feet were taking her, but they managed to get her back to the doors of her chambers. As she stepped inside, she realized how long it seemed since she was last in this room, and how long it had been since she had slept. She peeled out of her filthy clothes and crawled into bed. The last thought before she was engulfed by darkness was "Elbereth don't let me hear him scream tonight."
For the first time in a long time, her prayers were answered and her sleep was undisturbed.
Alrighty everyone! I'm officially trying to write from both of their perspectives and it's a bit more difficult than I thought. Lothiriel I think feels emotions just as deeply as Eomer, but expressing them comes in a very different way for her and writing that is a bit difficult to convey sometimes because Eomer's feelings are just so raw. He expresses them more freely because of the environment he grew up in, whereas Lothiriel has been taught to keep them subdued because of hers. She doesn't do it nearly as well as some of the Gondorian society, which we see from her friendship and discussions with Pippin, but she was still raised in a world where that was the way. Overall, I'm pretty happy with this chapter and where the story will be going, I hope you all have enjoyed as well!
